Père Lachaise Cemetery

What it is

Père Lachaise is a working cemetery that became a destination because its managers marketed it. It opened in 1804 in the 20th arrondissement, out beyond the city as it then was, and Parisians refused to be buried so far from town: there were 13 graves at the end of its first year.

In 1817 the administrators moved in the remains of Molière and Jean de La Fontaine, and those said to be of Pierre Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil. It worked. By 1830 there were more than 33,000 graves.

It now covers 44 hectares and holds more than a million bodies. It is the most visited cemetery in the world and it is still burying people.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

What's inside

Forty-four hectares of cobbled avenues on a hill, and the graves people come for.

Chopin and Bizet among the composers; Balzac, Proust and Oscar Wilde among the writers; Sarah Bernhardt and Jim Morrison among the performers. Molière and La Fontaine are the 1817 transfers.

The Communards' Wall, the Mur des Fédérés, is where 147 Communards were shot by the French Army during the Semaine sanglante in 1871, and it is still a political site rather than a historical one.

The crematorium was France's first: the first cremation here was on 30 January 1889. By 2012 cremation accounted for 45% of Paris funerals.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

How long to spend

Two hours, and take a map at the gate.

Forty-four hectares of numbered divisions on a slope, with avenues that curve and signage that assumes you already know where you are going. Walking it without a plan is how people spend three hours and find two of the graves they wanted.

A route that takes in Wilde, Chopin, Morrison and the Communards' Wall is roughly the diagonal of the cemetery and fills two hours at a reasonable pace.

The hill is real and the cobbles are uneven.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

Season and crowds

Morning, and in autumn if you get the choice.

The cemetery is at its best under leaf, and the trees over the older divisions are what make it a park rather than a graveyard. Late October and early November are the strongest weeks and also the ones when Parisian families come, on 1 November, which is worth seeing and worth respecting.

Rain makes the cobbles and the flat stones dangerously slick. This is not a wet-weather visit.

Winter mornings are empty and the bare trees expose the monuments, which some people prefer.

Checked 2026-08-23

Tickets

Entry is free. Père Lachaise is a municipal cemetery of the City of Paris, not a monument, and it is not ticketed.

Current opening hours are not published on the sources this page uses and are not reproduced here; the gates close in the late afternoon and earlier in winter, and the staff clear the grounds before closing.

Free maps are usually available at the main entrance, and the divisions are numbered on posts throughout.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

Getting there

The 20th arrondissement, on the hill east of the Place de la République.

Père Lachaise station is served by Métro lines 2 and 3 and sits at a side gate; Philippe Auguste on line 2 is nearer the main entrance on the Boulevard de Ménilmontant, which is the gate where the maps are.

Gambetta on line 3 is at the top of the hill, which means walking down through the cemetery rather than up. That is the better direction.

The Métro runs 16 lines across 321 stations, with stations 548 m apart on average — a two-stop journey is usually faster walked.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

What to watch out for

This is an active cemetery and funerals happen during opening hours. Walking through one with a camera is the failure mode to avoid.

Jim Morrison's grave is fenced and guarded because of decades of graffiti and drinking around it. Oscar Wilde's tomb is behind glass for the same reason — the lipstick kisses were damaging the stone. Both barriers are permanent and neither is negotiable.

Leaving objects, drinks or cigarettes on graves is prohibited and is cleared daily.

The cobbles are uneven, the slope is steep in places and there is no lighting. Do not be inside at closing.

Photography is permitted, but not of funerals or mourners.

Checked 2026-08-23 · Source

Photography

The cemetery photographs as an avenue rather than as a grave. The cobbled lanes between the nineteenth-century family chapels, with the trees closing overhead, are the picture that says Père Lachaise; a single headstone rarely does.

Morning light through the canopy in the older divisions is the strongest hour, and autumn gives it colour.

The Communards' Wall is a plain brick wall and does not photograph as anything. Its meaning is the plaque and the flowers, so include them or leave it.

Photographing funerals or mourners is not acceptable.

Checked 2026-08-23

Where it is

• 45 min

  1 min walk · Paris 20e Arrondissement

  Grave of James Pradier

  • High
  • Historic monument
• 45 min

  1 min walk · Paris 20e Arrondissement

  Grave of Debon

  • High
  • Historic monument
• 45 min

  1 min walk · Paris 20e Arrondissement

  Grave of Corot

  • High
  • Historic monument

External links

• Official site
• View on Wikidata